A Better Way to Breakfast / The Alice House, Queen’s Park

I’m laughably bad at the whole breakfast thing because most mornings I do this: wake ravenous; spend an inordinately long time pottering around while my stomach rumbles; finally decide I have to sate my hunger as my mood is getting progressively worse, and put something uninspiring in a bowl in order to do just that.

I’m not much better when forced out at the crack of dawn to go to an office, either – for an entire year at Marie Claire I started the day with either oats in boiling water or a green juice made by the Cruush team downstairs.

The issue is twofold: 1) I’m lazy, and 2) It’s hard to find inspiring veggie, healthy breakfast food on the trot that isn’t extortionate so that I can afford to continue to eat/travel/pay my rent after filling myself up.

The Alice House on Salusbury Road has been solving my morning conundrum of late: they do an amazing porridge (currently with sliced rhubarb, soya milk and hazelnuts, though I’m told this will change seasonally), a ruddy good smashed avocado toast, and some blueberry pancakes (that aren’t exactly salubrious but that are so damn good that I couldn’t care less when they’re in front of me) each for around a cheap-for-London fiver. Also: those hanging lights and the exposed brick are providing me a lot of ideas for the new pad…